The zombie survival mod for Bohemia Interactive's military sim ArmA II has come out of nowhere to be one of the most interesting things to happen to PC gaming in 2012. What's most interesting, to me at least, is what it's done to the sales and profile of ArmA II, a very serious game and one that, while successful and prominent within a niche of PC gaming, is hardly what you'd call a mainstream smash.

Yet in the past few weeks more newcomers have been exposed to ArmA II in a short span of time than ever before, all because the game's ruthless approach to realism and survival now includes zombies. To find out how the mod has impacted the game, and how they're handling the overnight renaissance in awareness, I spoke with Bohemia Interactive's Marek Španěl.

"There's no doubt that the thrilling Day Z mod currently drives Arma 2 Combined Operations sales on Steam", he says with a touch of understatement. "Sales have increased almost fivefold from how they were before Day Z's Alpha release!"

"That said, we have always been proud to provide a PC exclusive type of game like Arma 2, with a strong emphasis on modding and the user community."

From all the video's I've seen I think I'll wait till the mod is better developed (ie at least beta stage), or when ArmA III comes out (it's "expected" Q4 2012 according to wikipedia) and it gets moved to that. The engine for ArmA II looks to have some serious flaws and I'm not sure if the mod will be able to overcome them as it matures.

I always felt their games to be very ambitious but never quite capable of pulling it off. With this kind of attention and backing, they might be able to make future titles far better. Even now ArmA III boasts ragdoll physics (Been wanting that for a long time) And, possibly, improved animations and controls - one of my major gripes with the ArmA/Operation flashpoint series. So frustrating and awkward to control.

I foresee an official DAYZ gamemode implemented in ArmA III if this really takes off, and it appears to be. Most shooters seem to be incorporating some sort of Zombie theme into their games (to the point it's actually getting cliched and boring). ArmA III would have a serious edge if they copied what DAYZ is doing, because it would be entirely new.

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Originally Posted by SpankyMcFlych

From all the video's I've seen I think I'll wait till the mod is better developed (ie at least beta stage), or when ArmA III comes out (it's "expected" Q4 2012 according to wikipedia) and it gets moved to that. The engine for ArmA II looks to have some serious flaws and I'm not sure if the mod will be able to overcome them as it matures.

What i've come to realize is alot of newcomers blame core engine problems on the mod itself. They don't know the bugs in DAYZ have plagued the ArmA/Operation Flashpoint titles for years. I doubt they will be fixed.

As i said before, the biggest problems are the controls. Another big issue is A.I pathfinding and glitching through walls, floors and other physical barriers - both for players and A.I.Edited by Thingamajig - 5/15/12 at 10:58pm

More interesting to see a mod impact a games sales so much.
Perhaps this will get some devs attention the impact of community driven content/tools (Wishful thinking)

Sad reality is most devs put money before innovation or quality. They want to be in complete control of their investment/creation, and stick to the same old formulas that guarantee a profit. This stifles any real progress in the industry, imo. I can't say i blame them but it appears they have more money than sense most the time.

Time and time again i see devs like Bethesda or Bohemia show that allowing your games to be modified is just a win/win situation. I miss the games of the 90's where third party modifications were the norm.

The only risks involved in this kind of thing are, for example, when Rockstar got in trouble because of the Hot Coffee mod. This is partly why i feel they develop entirely for consoles and have practically shunned the PC gaming community. Rockstar, you suck.Edited by Thingamajig - 5/15/12 at 11:48pm